27 January 1998
BUTLER SAYS UNSCOM LOOKING FOR BIOLOGICAL WARHEADS IN IRAQ
(Iraq trying to dismiss UNSCOM through propaganda) (1180) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent New York -- The head of the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) overseeing the destruction of Iraq's chemical biological and ballistic weapons said January 27 that very serious questions remain about Iraq's ability to produce long-range missiles and the extent of its biological weapons program. Ambassador Richard Butler, chief of UNSCOM, told representatives of more than 50 American Jewish organizations that UNSCOM is looking for about 45 "truly serious" warheads that had been filled with chemical or biological weapons and remain unaccounted for seven years after the Gulf War. UNSCOM wants to see production and filing records, Butler said in his remarks to the New York based group. That data along with other information independently obtained by UNSCOM could help "unlock the black hole of Iraq's biological weapons program." In addition, the UNSCOM chairman said, "there remain some very serious residual questions about the extent to which (Iraq) indigenously produced long range missiles." He said that UNSCOM continues to press Baghdad for "basic information on missile tests, propellants, motors and guidance systems." He said that UNSCOM has accounted for or destroyed 817 of the 819 SCUD missiles Iraq purchased from the then-Soviet Union. Many of the missiles were used in the war with Iran or fired during the Gulf War. However, the U.N. inspectors "are not satisfied that Iraq has met its disarmament obligations" on local Iraqi production, Butler said. UNSCOM does not know how many spare parts or other data on the missiles have been retained by Iraq to use in making its own missiles. Looking at the facts UNSCOM has about Iraq's weapons programs and the questions Baghdad refuses to answer, Butler said that "it is reasonable for us to extrapolate" that Iraq could still possess the ability to unleash biological weapons on a city in the region. "We have pleaded with them (Iraqi officials) to give us the outstanding information...to bring that to full account and they've not yet done so," he said. In the chemical weapons area UNSCOM has destroyed "a very substantial portion of the production equipment with which Iraq made a dazzling array and quantity of chemical weapons, but we are not at the end, particularly on (the chemical agent) VX," Butler said. Iraq's record on biological weapons is "pathetic," Butler said. "For four and a half years Iraq flatly denied having any. When we confronted them with compelling evidence to the contrary they then admitted that they had a program, but sought to minimize its nature and extent." "We have never received from Iraq an even remotely credible account of its biological weapons program in comparison with what our evidence says is the case," he said. Butler said that UNSCOM needs to visit sensitive and presidential sites in Iraq because "we have information that leads us to believe that prohibited weapons may be either stored there or continue to be made there....That's why we need to be let in to see," he said. Butler said that relations between Iraq and the U.N. Security Council is at "a pretty critical time" as Iraq continues to refuse to let UNSCOM inspectors into many sites. As the Council decides what further action to take against Baghdad, Butler said that he "wouldn't write diplomacy off yet." As important as what work remains to be done by UNSCOM, Butler said, has been Iraq's policy shift in the last few months. "The central reality we face at the U.N. today," Butler said, is that Iraqi officials "have moved to the position where they are attempting to rule off the book without giving us...any more information and the right to inspect to find out" if Iraq's declarations are accurate. Since Iraq precipitated the crisis in November last year by attempting to throw out U.S. inspectors, Butler said, "we have a very considerable leap in Iraq's attempts to take its case out to the world, ironically, principally through Western media." Butler called "propaganda" Iraq's attempts to shift the focus from UNSCOM's work to complaints about UNSCOM policies and charges that its inspectors work for various spy agencies, or excuses that the U.S. will never allow sanctions to be lifted. "You will hear Iraq say with increasing loudness these days that they have cooperated fully, that they have declared all that they are able and willing to declare, that the disarmament part is now over and we haven't been prepared to give that report to the Council," Butler said. "The crucial point to be underscored here is that the job is not over," he said. "When we record this job is done, according to international law...the Council will lift sanctions." "The track record is not bad -- contrary to some popular renderings of it. It's not bad, but it's not over," he said. Butler also put UNSCOM's work in historical perspective, stressing that the issue is disarmament and the desire of the majority of the countries around the world to end the arms race as they enter the 21st century. "As you listen to Iraq's propaganda keep your eye on the ball: what is at issue here is disarmament," he said. "The fact is that Iraq created a quantity and quality of weapons of mass destruction that, when one thinks of the size of the industrial base, etc., was virtually unique, breathtaking in its scope and its danger to its region and population beyond," Butler said. "The Security Council was right in recognizing that fact and setting up a mechanism to deal with that problem," said Butler, who is an Australian disarmament expert. "Is Iraq being singled out? Yes; because, after all, it was unique," Butler said. "In another sense Iraq is a test case...for the view that is advanced by most people in the civilized world -- certainly by most member states of the United Nations and the Security Council itself: Will the 21st century be marked by ever more increasing weapons of mass destruction." "The answer is a resounding no," Butler argued, citing the number of disarmament treaties agreed upon since the end of World War II. "We do not have to live in a world in which biological weapons, chemical weapons, nuclear weapons proliferate. It is against the trend of history." "The Council has asserted that Iraq is a test case...that lays down the principle for the kind of world we want to live in and create a mechanism to insure that be able to be achieved," he said. In setting up UNSCOM, he said, the Security Council "did so in a very far-sighted way. It was looking forward to...a century that is not awash with weapons of mass destruction. Those who made the law in the Council and political leaders around the world have made that point repeatedly," he said. UNSCOM's system of inspection and verification monitoring is a serious attempt by the international community to make that vision reality, Butler said.
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